The Legend of Hobbomock


Book Description

A Quinnipiac Native American boy must find a way to stop the stone giant Hobbomock from destroying his people, after the giant becomes angry over the Quinnipiac's lack of respect for ancient tribal ways. Based on the legend of the Sleeping Giant land form in Hamden, Connecticut. The story builds understanding among children ages 6-10 of Native American ways and inspires appreciation for nature and the outdoors. Teaching Resource Guide available (from the book publisher) to match the book to the Core Curriculum for the Native American component of Social Studies. The book is currently adopted for use in the 4th grade in several schools and appears on a number of summer reading lists in New England.




Tales From Another Dimension


Book Description

How will HG Wells react when he awakes 200 years in the future on a strange planet, faced with a terrible truth? Two young brothers make a frightening discovery about the neighbors. Do robots secretly want to rule us all? A scientist goes to extremes to change the future of mankind. But is it possible to change our destiny? Tales from another dimension is a strange and fantastical collection of ten short stories. Robbie Sheerin is inspired by classic Sci-fi, invoking nightmarish twists and turns with each story. Travel to another dimension and meet strange characters, sometimes human, and at times not so human. They will make you question the solidity of the earth and mankind. Explore prejudice, fear, imagination, kindness, empathy, and human frailty. "The Truth Comes in Storms is wonderfully evocative -and the twist caught me completely unawares. Sheerin is a writer to keep an eye on!"- Rob Yescombe. Writer of the movie "Outside the Wire" These stories are strong echoes of the classic science fiction of the 1950's, and bring back fond memories of the Twilight Zone.-Noel Chidwick. Founder and editor of the award winning sci-fi magazine Shoreline of Infinity ....Sheerin's Sci-if shorts engage the mind and senses with dread and wonder at the same time. What happens on the moon....stays on the moon, even it's from different planets.- ARZONO Publishing "With a voice of clarity and surprise, Robbie Sheerin is well worth the quick and wondrous read each of his stories provides, the insight into our humanity (or inhumanity) they present, and the lasting impression they leave. Indulge and entertain yourself!" - Jason J. Marchi, author of Venus Remembered with Ray Bradbury and the Barnes & Noble recognized bestseller The Legend of Hobbomock: The Sleeping Giant. Robbie Sheerin's insightful story "The Protector" is a chilling tale that underscores humanity's most troubling shortcomings. At its core, it reminds us that we must remain open-minded and compassionate toward those who are "not like us" or suffer the consequences..... ..."The Future You Imagine, Doctor, Is Not The Future Of The Future" is inventive and imaginative. In my opinion, all tales about our future should be appropriately apocalyptic.They should shake the foundations of our hopes and dreams .....- Leith MacArthur, author of "The Death of Harry Crow", from The William Snow Series of thrillers.




The Purple Sky Book Two


Book Description

Peter Barbieris final novel in his trilogy continues with EMILY MADDINGs journal; in it, Emily documents PALE-MOONs narration of life in her [Pale-Moon] ninth-century Native American village. Pale-Moons connection to Emily, a woman living in the nineteenth century, enables the two women to dream-travel to each others time-band. Thus begins a celestial relationship that endures for centuries. Emily frequently dream-travels to the ninth-century village and is present during the birth and much of the subsequent twenty-year life of Pale-Moons nephew TEH-GHUT-SA. The narration recounts the periods during which Teh-Ghut-Sa undertakes two vision quests: the first at age thirteen; the second at age twenty. As events unfold, an imbalance in the interstellar positive-negative polarity develops. Emilyher ability to dream-travel to time-bands within the past, present, and futurereveals several possibilities that would result if the balance tips in favor of the negative polarity. If the imbalance were to progress unaltered, mayhem and death would result. When Teh-Ghut-Sa, age twenty, returns from his second vision quest, he becomes the target of a negative-polarity plot. The confrontation's eventual outcome will affect the lives of all beings residing in the known universe. A more immediate consequence: the stream of consciousness that had given rise to the mind-consciousness of many village inhabitants would be obliterated, along with the lives of those connected to it.




The Purple Sky


Book Description

PETER BARBIERIS mesmerizing Book One of his trilogy depicts the resentment, suspicion, and intrigue that direct the lives of one Native American family living in North America prior to the European invasion. Book One begins with the birth of a son and ends with two brothers fi ght-to-the-death. The Purple Sky is an account of EMILY MADDINGs (b. 1765, d. 1857) dreamvisits to a small Native American village. In a manner most mysterious and uncanny, Emily lives the life of PALE-MOON, one of the villages women. Emily defi nes her relationship with Pale-Moon in this way: It is as if I am here now, on the tenth of January, 1806, sitting at my desk, living a life as wife and mother a life with a memory, history, and a fancied future and yet I am vaguely aware of a ubiquitous presence hovering in an indefi nable space; a presence that connects me to all that has been and to all that will be. In so far as the Native American woman is concerned, Emily is her ubiquitous presence, and she [Pale-Moon] is to a certain extent aware of it. Through Emily, Pale-Moon narrates the compelling story of her peoples struggle to maintain a harmonious existence within a world teetering on the brink of transfi guration. BARBIERIS previous works of fictionTales From the Soft Underbelly of Confusion, a collection of short stories, and Tree Of Dreams, a novelwere published by iuiverse in 2007 and 2009 respectively. Peter Barbieri received his doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He completed his post-doctoral studies with Luciano Berio in Florence, Italy. For the past twenty-fi ve years, Barbieri has been touring the United States and Europe as pianist/ accompanist for the Nancy Spanier Dance Company. Currently, Dr. Barbieri is the executive director of the ijamjazz summer jazz camp in Bonefro, Italy and teaches Jazz Th eory and Improvisation in Boulder, Colorado.




The Ancient American


Book Description




Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Connecticut History


Book Description

The lives of notorious bad guys, perpetrators of mischief, visionary--if misunderstood--thinkers, and other colorful antiheroes, jerks, and evil doers from history all get their due in the short essays featured in these enlightening, informative books. Speaking Ill of the Dead: Jerks in Connecticut History features fifteen short biographies of nefarious characters, from Benedict Arnold to P.T. Barnum.




Ode on a Martian Urn


Book Description

A collection of poetry by award-winning journalist Jason J. Marchi. Several poems in this volume were first published in such magazines as Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Pandora, Byline, and Verbicide during a 20 year period, and some of these poems were recognized in writing contests. A few unpublished poems are included here for the first time. This handsome trade paperback book also includes nine black & white illustrations (and a full-color cover) by noted Connecticut artist and art teacher, Noel Belton.




Venus Remembered


Book Description

NINE YEAR OLD Margot remembers the sun. "[A] yellow crayon or a coin large enough to buy the world with . . . a warmness, like a blushing in the face, in the body, in the arms and legs and trembling hands." In Ray Bradbury's revered short story, "All Summer in a Day," the last time Margot saw the sun was when she was four years old and still living on Earth. After her family moved to Venus a year later, she longed to see the sun again and to feel its warmth on her skin. On the one day every seven years when it stops raining on Venus and the sun breaks through the perpetual cloud cover to brighten the landscape for a brief two hours, Margot is locked away in a dark closet by her jealous classmates. Readers familiar with the graceful and poetic writing of Ray Bradbury - and those new to his literary magic - will find themselves empathetic toward a young girl who is kept from feeling and seeing the sunlight by her mean-spirited peers. Jump forward in time and meet Margot at 16. In the story "When the Rain Stops," Jason Marchi provides one plausible and satisfying answer to the question left in readers' minds at the end of Bradbury's classic tale of aloneness - whatever happened to Margot?? Foreword by William F. Nolan, co-author of Logan's Run, one of the most seminal novels in the annals of science fiction.? Introduction by Dr. Jonathan R. Eller, Director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).? Discussions section for creative writing students.? Bonus letter from Bradbury to Marchi in March of 2002.




If You Should Go at Midnight


Book Description

Tonight, across America, countless people will embark on an adventure. They will prowl among overgrown headstones in forgotten graveyards, stalk through darkened woods and wildlands, and creep down the crumbling corridors of abandoned buildings. They have set forth in search of a profound paranormal experience and may seem to achieve just that. They are part of the growing cultural phenomenon called legend tripping. In If You Should Go at Midnight: Legends and Legend Tripping in America, author Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl guides readers through an exploration of legend tripping, drawing on years of scholarship, documentary accounts, and his own extensive fieldwork. Poring over old reports and legends, sleeping in haunted inns, and trekking through wilderness full of cannibal mutants and strange beasts, Debies-Carl provides an in-depth analysis of this practice that has long fascinated scholars yet remains a mystery to many observers. Debies-Carl argues that legend trips are important social practices. Unlike traditional rites of passage, they reflect the modern world, revealing both its problems and its virtues. In society as well as in legend tripping, there is ambiguity, conflict, crisis of meaning, and the substitution of debate for social consensus. Conversely, both emphasize individual agency and values, even in spiritual matters. While people still need meaningful and transformative experiences, authoritative, traditional institutions are less capable of providing them. Instead, legend trippers voluntarily search for individually meaningful experiences and actively participate in shaping and interpreting those experiences for themselves.




Hidden History of Old Lyme, Lyme & East Lyme


Book Description

Old Lyme, Lyme and East Lyme were once one town, founded in the 1600s. Known for early innovations in industry, government and education, these towns also share a wealth of overlooked history. Discover the taverns where Patriots met during the Revolution, the Diving Horses at the Golden Spur Amusement Park and the Spiritualist Camp that has held séances since 1882. Meet the smuggler captain who routinely escaped prison to visit his wife, the Revolutionary War veteran who trailblazed the West and the abolitionist who helped Frederick Douglass escape to freedom. Authors Jim Lampos and Michaelle Pearson weave a fascinating tapestry of local legends, history and lore.